New Healthcare Workforce Consortium to fund informatics, HIM, health IT apprenticeships
The Healthcare Workforce Consortium, a joint project of the American Health Information Management Association Foundation, American Hospital Association, American Medical Informatics Association and the National Center for Healthcare Leadership, has received a $7.1 million award from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Given by the DoL's Employment & Training Administration, the grant positions the Healthcare Workforce Consortium as the so-called Healthcare Sector Intermediary in a larger $20.4 million program aimed at 14 industries nationwide. For its part, HWC will fund apprenticeships in health informatics, health information management, health information technology and other fields in the healthcare industry.
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As the healthcare workforce evolves alongside the industry as a whole, HWC seeks to narrow the gap between academic training and competencies and the job skills needed to ensure workforce readiness, officials say. Another aim of the program is to increase demographic diversity and inclusion in apprenticeship among traditionally underrepresented populations.
"The HWC has the unique ability to ensure programmatic success of this apprenticeship initiative with our strong understanding of workforce needs, labor markets, and curricula development and credentialing/certification along with our wide-reaching networks that cut across healthcare occupations and industry and provider settings," said Doug Fridsma, MD, president and CEO of AMIA, in a statement.
AHIMA Foundation executive director William Rudman added that the initiative “will serve as a catalyst to create job opportunities and career pathways for those entering into and those seeking career advancement in all healthcare professions.”
Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
